JOSEPH JORDAN FROM BARRY AND SUTTON SENTENCED TO EIGHT YEARS FOR SEX OFFENCES IN CARDIFF

In a case that has sent shockwaves through the South Wales community, Father Joseph Jordan, a 42-year-old priest originally from Barry, has been sentenced to a total of eight years in prison by Cardiff Crown Court for a series of serious sexual offences. The court heard that Jordan, who had previously worked as a teacher in Sutton, Surrey, and in Doncaster before entering the priesthood, pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent assault committed between February 1987 and February 1989.

These heinous acts took place during his time as a teacher, with the court revealing that the assaults involved young boys. The court's proceedings also disclosed that Jordan was involved in other criminal activities, including possessing indecent images of children and attempting to pervert the course of justice. The evidence presented painted a disturbing picture of a man who had engaged in depraved conduct over a period of years.

Prior to this sentencing, Jordan had already been convicted and sentenced to four and a half years in prison for assaulting two nine-year-old boys. Due to legal restrictions, this earlier conviction could not be publicly reported until the conclusion of the second trial. The combined sentences for both cases now amount to eight years, with the second sentence to run consecutively.

During the earlier trial, it was revealed that Jordan, who served as the chaplain for Cardiff City Football Club, kept a large collection of hardcore child pornography on a personal computer located at his presbytery in St Helen's Church, Barry. Prosecutor Leighton Davies described how Jordan was tipped off about the allegations of abuse by the church a week before he was questioned and arrested. In a bid to hide evidence, Jordan instructed his cleaning lady to remove the computer from his residence, unaware that police had already been investigating its contents.

Police experts later discovered approximately 500 pornographic images of boys, which Jordan had stored between January 1996 and July 12, 1999. The prosecution described the images as 'totally depraved,' and the court found Jordan guilty of multiple charges, including four counts of indecent assault against two boys aged nine and ten, as well as charges of perverting the course of justice and possessing indecent images of children. Judge Peter Jacobs sentenced Jordan to four and a half years for these offences and ordered him to be registered as a sex offender for ten years.

Jordan's arrest in July 1999 occurred while he was on secondment from St Helen's Church in Barry to St Mary of the Angels in Canton, Cardiff. Following his conviction, Archbishop John Aloysius Ward expressed remorse, stating, “Steps have been taken to make contact with those Jordan abused as a priest and to offer whatever counselling might be appropriate. These sad events damaged the church. I shall do all in my power to repair that damage.”

Further background revealed that Jordan was a former student within the Plymouth diocese. When he moved to Cardiff, the Bishop of Plymouth had written to Archbishop Ward to alert him of an investigation into Jordan’s suitability for ministry due to a previous sex assault allegation, of which Jordan was acquitted. Archbishop Ward stated he was unaware of Jordan’s paedophile tendencies at the time of his ordination, only knowing of the earlier allegation, which he believed Jordan was innocent of.

Margaret Kennedy, founder of an abuse survivors' group, expressed her lack of surprise at the conviction, commenting, “There should have been things that caused alarm bells to ring; I think somebody did not want to hear.” The case has reignited calls for accountability and transparency within the church, as communities grapple with the disturbing revelations about a man they once trusted.